Stars: Laura Aikin, Cornelia Kallisch, Peter Keller, Steve Davislim, Alfred Muff, Peter Straka, Guido Gotzen, Andrea Bonig, Katharina Peetz, Rolf Haunstein, Zurich Opera House Chor And Orch, Franz Welser-Most

Summary: A performance of the Alban Berg opera in two acts plus excerpts from the Lulu Symphony, music for the third act which was never completed. Franz Welser-Most conducts.

A performance of Berg's provocative unfinished opera from the Zurich Opera House, where LULU had its premiere in 1937.

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Alban Berg's second and last opera Luluis one of the monuments of modernism, constructed around serial technique and containing scenes conceived of as Sonata-form, Suite and so on. The bliss of Andrew Davis's conducting in this classic Glyndebourne production is that we forget all of this--Davis doesn't gloss over the music's intellectual content, but that's not what we think about as we watch and listen. Part of the production's strength is the prodigious performance by Christine Schafer as Lulu--for once we believe in the character's sexual energy and power; and Schafer makes her real enough as a person that we largely forget the work's intrinsic misogyny. The rest of the cast are admirable too: Norman Bailey brings something perversely sweet to the disreputable painter Schigolch; Kathryn Harries makes the dying words of Lulu's lesbian lover Geschwitz one of the work's lyric high points; David Kuebler is equally powerful as Alwa. The final duet between Lulu and her destroyer Jack the Ripper is one of Wolfgang Schone's great moments, but he is equally good as Dr Schon, the man Lulu marries and kills. This is a performance of energy and beauty, matched by a simple but effective production.

On the DVDLuluon disc is presented in disappointingly in NTSC format with a 4:3 picture ratio. Fortunately, the Dolby 2.0 digital sound is ideal for the fine detail of this complex score and these nuanced performances. There are subtitles in English, French, German, Spanish and Japanese. --Roz Kaveney

Aspect Ratio:	16:9 Wide Screen
Main Language:	English
Region:	Region 0
Year:	2002
Release Date:	January 5, 2004
Runtime:	130 minutes
Certification:	Exempt.
Catalogue Number:	D V O P L U L U
Keywords:	Music, Opera, Wide, Screen, Lulu, Performance, Plays, Berg, Performing, Operetta, Arts
Genre:	Music/Performing Arts